Sunday, July 8, 2012

Barack Obama attacks Congress and Mitt Romney after weak jobs report

President Barack Obama attempted to turn the heat back on Mitt Romney and Congress on Saturday as he sought to divert attention away from the third consecutive month of lacklustre jobs reports.

In his weekly address to the nation, the president blamed intransigence in Washington for slowing the progress of measures aimed at getting Americans back to work.

Meanwhile a new campaign video released Saturday accused his Republican rival for the White House of profiting from the outsourcing of US jobs to India and the far east.

The 30-second attack ad also seeks to undermine Romney's claim that he will get tough on China over its trading practices and alleged currency manipulation should he be elected president in November.

The Republican presidential candidate has accused the White House of failing to act over measures by Beijing that have hurt domestic companies.

In the ad released Saturday, Romney is seen at a campaign debate stating that "the Chinese are smiling all the way to the bank, taking our jobs and taking a lot of our future".

"He made a fortune letting it happen," a narrator adds.

The claim follows reports in the Washington Post this week that during his time at private equity firm Bain Capital, Romney was directly involved in decisions that led to the outsourcing of American jobs in a bid to cut costs.

As the ad draws to a close, the narrator delivers a parting shot at the Republican presidential hope.

"Mitt Romney's not the solution. He's the problem," he says.

Republicans said that the ploy was intended to divert attention from poor jobs figures that showed that just 80,000 posts were added in June, leaving the headline unemployment rate stuck at 8.2%.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said it was "no surprise President Obama would want to distract Americans from the devastating June jobs numbers, but the American people deserve better than dishonest ads".

In his weekly radio address, Obama admitted there was "more to do" on employment. But he sought to highlight programmes brought in under his administration to help stimulate job growth.

He said: "Our mission isn't just to put people back to work – it's to rebuild an economy where that work pays, an economy in which everyone who works hard has the chance to get ahead."

"For months, I've been pushing Congress to pass several common-sense ideas that will help us do that," he added, noting that such pressure had eventually resulted in spending for large infrastructure projects and interest rate relief for students.